Rawlings, Buhari campaign for looted funds to be returned from Europe

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has served notice that thieves and corrupt Nigerian nationals and their foreign partners who looted from the state coffers would know no peace until they brought back what they illegally took.

Buhari made the disclosure on Sallah day when he received a delegation of well-wishers who came to pay him the traditional Sallah homage at the Presidential Villa in Abuja stressing "please tell those with plenty of money which does not belong to them to try and negotiate and return it in peace, so that both they and us will be in peace, otherwise we will continue to look for it and they won't know any peace."

In the same light Ghana's one time leader Jerry John Rawlings has appealed to the world to disclose and return Nigeria's stolen submitting that the international community should spearhead the initiative without rest.

Jeremiah Rawlings speaking to The Guardian in Ghana after the London Conference on Corruption said industrialized countries must come forward and offer the stashed funds if they claim to believe in probity and accountability adding "the high-level London conference on corruption offers an opportunity not only for countries in Africa and the developing world to revise and enhance their strategies for combating corruption, but also for developed countries whose banks have served as a safe haven for stolen wealth from Africa and elsewhere to repatriate those funds.

"I also implore the international community to join the chorus for the return of the loot, especially to a country like Nigeria while she enjoys the leadership of a proven man of integrity."

Not pleased with global anti-corruption workshops with no definite plan to force the return of African funds, he stated “let us stop this support and mere conference of words and follow up with serious deeds. The commitment to corruption should work both ways. Developed countries cannot continue to harbour illegally-acquired funds from Africa and expect the latter to successfully stem the source of corruption.

"If we could transmit the integrity from our culture and various languages into the Western language and behaviour we've adopted, we could end up restoring the needed level of integrity to create a more civilised behaviour. In other words, we will be restoring integrity and credibility back to the spoken word."

Mr Rawlings also observed the capitalist system was intolerant to persons who speak up against advanced countries hiding these looted funds from Africa noting their peculiar hatred for nationalists and pan- Africanists is a matter of public record.

He called for more pressure on world leaders like Obama to champion the campaign and for London, Switzerland and the other cities to cough up ill gained stashed funds.

According to the National Democratic Congress founder the regime change agenda in South America especially Brazil spearheaded by the West is shameful remarking leaders with socialist inclinations must be allowed also to rule too.

To rid the society of dishonest people in African societies Jeremiah Rawlings prescribed lie detector tests for courtrooms.

"Attaching lie detector tests to courthouses could go a long way in restoring the culture of truthfulness, justice and social stability. Time and money would be saved adjudicating on the issues.

"If only lie detector machines could be attached to the lying mouths of some of these so-called professional journalists and commentators, our society would stay focused and the lift-off in the society will also become inevitable. Any loss of lift will not undermine the stability of our society" he summed up.